Artist
Exhibition Dates
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Of One's Own 07, 2011
47 x 47 in.
Chromogenic Print
Of One's Own 04, 2011
47 x 47 in.
Chromogenic Print
Of One's Own 8, 2008
47 x 47 in.
Chromogenic print
Of One's Own 06, 2011
47 x 47 in.
Chromogenic Print
Of One’s Own
Pushing photography beyond traditional limits, Virginia Mak explores the visual possibilities of the medium. Known for its soft focus and minimized light values, her work disrupts the boundary between painting and photography.
“Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes come to the top.”
—Virginia Woolf, Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf proposes that for a woman to be able to write [or create], she need be free of poverty, to have a room of one’s [her] own.
This latest series by photographer Mak consists of “interior” portraits where the woman is engaged in a quiet act or looking at the world outside. It also describes the physical setting wherein a woman frees her mind from clutter, finding time and space to ignite her imagination. Her gaze is at once outward and inward. Her gaze outward may allude to her longing for somewhere distant, external to her surroundings. The external world—natural or manmade—encompasses a grander picture of life. The woman’s interior world may also imply her station, one of domesticity.
The window is an opening. Unlike a door, it is a partial opening. The moment may be one of reflection, curiosity, excitement of the moment itself, or anticipating what lies ahead.
